Book-Guided

Building Capital: A Guide to Fredericton’s Historic Landmarks

The revised edition (2006) of this best-selling purse or pocket-size booklet includes a style guide to early residential buildings, exceptional black and white photography and “snapshot” descriptions of 160 of Fredericton South’s most significant sites and buildings in two self-directed walking tours. The full booklet may be purchased from Westminster Books, Botinicals Gift Shop, Beaverbroook Art Gallery and the York-Sunbury Museum.

Tour 1: City Hall / Upriver Tour

This tour takes you on a circlular route from City Hall upriver to the Old Government House grounds, then winds its way through downtown's west plat residential neighborhood, terminating back into the commercial core and the Historic Garrison District. We begin the tour at Phoneix Square in the presence of the City Hall fountain's "Freddy the Little Nude Dude," the cherub characterization of Fredericton who dates from 1885. It is fitting that the square is named for the mythological phonenix as much of early downtown Fredericton was destroyed by fire and rose from the ashes.

Tour 2: Legislature / Downriver Tour

This tour begins at the Provincial Legislature and will meander through the residential east town plat, go "up the hill" to the University of New Brunswick, then return down to the Green and back upriver to the Cathedral only a short block away. Standing in Parliament Square before the Legislature, one can imagine the visage this imposing structure showed to the 19th century visitor from the river and likewise the view of the river from this vantage. Alas, those days have all but passed with the end of riverboat travel in the 1940s. Still, stand for a moment and survey the Square and you receive a case study in the interplay of form and function in the design and execution of the various buildings.

A Tour of Boss Gibson’s Marysville – A Nineteenth Century Mill Town

This 1991 publication contains thumbnail descriptions and sepia photos of the dominating cotton mill, stark workers’ quarters, elegant managers’ homes, stores and churches that bring to life the 19th century social structure and way of life of this once booming industrial town. This self-directed tour (an excellent supplement to the Marysville Audio Tour) may be purchased from the York-Sunbury Museum.